10 eBill Presentment & eStatement predictions for 2011

Despite all the activity and market hype surrounding eBilling and eStatements for the past 7 years and in particular in 2010; we believe that 2011 will not herald anything really significant. Unfortunately we expect it to be a "more of the same" year.

Here's how we see it playing out:

1. Billers will yet again fail to suppress any meaningful percentage of paper bills: Over the past 3 years, billers in North America have managed to turn off an average of 2% to 3% of their total paper bills per year. This year will be exactly the same with the exception of those billers that have been driving paper suppression for 5 years or more, and are now approaching 15% paper suppressed, they will see a diminishing increase as they move beyond the innovator and early- adopter segments of their customer bases.


2. Banks will fail to turn off more than a few percent of paper statements: Unless banks come up with a way to electronically deliver statements; paper turn off rates will disappoint yet again in 2011. Read this previous blog I wrote on why 82.639% of internet bankers will not turn off paper statements.

3. Biller electronic payment will continue to migrate to internet banking: The trend of electronic bill pay migrating away from Biller Direct websites to internet banking bill pay will continue. The migration will not only continue here in the USA but will gather momentum somewhat in 2011 in other first world countries.

4. Banks will fail in their attempts to gain critical mass in 'presenting' bills within internet banking: The math doesn't add up and billers don't want it. For the same reasons why other consolidators of bill presentment will always fail, so too will banks that try to do the same thing. Which leads me to my next prediction...

5. eBilling Consolidators will fail to gain significant traction: I recently wrote a blog on why eBill consolidators will always fail. This coming year will be no exception.

6. We will see the first negative paper suppression incentives and a subsequent consumer push-back: As has been tried many times internationally, charging people for a paper statement / bill not only has immediate, vocal, churn inducing and dramatic customer push-back, it also has only minimal paper suppression success. Nonetheless we'll see some major billers go down this ill-advised path over the next 12 months.

7. Positive incentives for paper suppression will continue to have disappointing results: It has been proven time and time again that if your only paper statement / bill alternative is to view and download an electronic version from a website, then incentives will have little to no appeal to the mass consumer market.

8. New 'push' players will emerge in the US market: Being the only game in town is no fun. After hearing about it for ages, we really do expect one or even two new "push" players to launch in the US market. We are also hoping that the handful of billers who have told us repeatedly that they are developing push eBilling themselves will actually go ahead and go live this year.

9. Billers and financial institutions that rolled out email document delivery and email billing programs will enjoy another 12% paper suppression increase: Both the US and Canada will see the public launch of top tier consumer brands deploying a 'push' strategy.

10. Email will continue to clean up its act: Email has seen dramatic improvements these past 24 months with regards to inbox functionality, auto-organizing, spam control and deliverability. We expect this trend to continue and strengthen in 2011.

In conclusion

Perhaps the only noticeable occurrence in 2011 will be the lack of traction of the two new biller consolidators in the US market. We can therefore expect 2011 to be a foundation, building year for 2012 with consolidation amongst vendors, mobile strategies gaining some penetration and yet another 10% of 'me-too' billers building and launching self serve portals in the vain hopes of suppressing paper and postage.

And finally, Striata US grew by 40% in 2010 and we aim to exceed this considerably in 2011 with at least 40 new bank and biller clients.

Do we have it covered? What are your predictions for eBilling in 2011?

Garin Toren
Striata USA - Chief Operating Officer
striata.com

The World Cup of eBilling

With all eyes on South Africa as the Football World Cup moves into top gear, the buzz in our Johannesburg office is spreading to our global offices, even as far as here in Hong Kong! And it’s got me thinking - what it would take to win the eBilling World Cup if there was such a thing? Who would you need in your team and what game plan/strategies will work best?

The defence is in the delivery
Well, you won’t even reach the second round if you don’t have a strong defence. For eBilling, we’re defending against the customer’s resistance to accept change. So, the fundamental requirement is to deliver the invoice or statement information to the customers in a clear, concise manner quickly and conveniently. But be warned - making the customer remember new id/password combinations and search a portal for this month’s bill is a definite own-goal!

Fancy footwork, like one-click payment, adds sparkle!
Once we’ve got a good, strong defence in place, we can move on to the mid-field. This is where a bit of fancy footwork and showboating is allowed, adding a bit of sparkle to the game and giving the punter more than they were expecting. Personalized eMarketing shows the customer that you really know what their needs are. Link-tracking feeds back into this - like a half-time locker room pep talk - ensuring the team learns from experience and plays better, game after game. One-click payment from within a PDF eBill will have the fans cheering! Update forms keep track of any team-changes. And if you’re looking for really flashy footwork, then why not use ‘Flash’ to slice and dice data and create dynamic user-defined graphs, giving the fans exactly what they want!

Paper turn off scores the winning goal...
To win the game, you need strikers to get you goals! And the goal for any eBilling solution is paper-turn-off , which provides both environmental and financial benefits . Registration-free sign-up and creative adoption strategies are key here. Look to the professional strikers; 97% of customers who start receiving Striata’s eBills end up turning off paper – each one like a ball in the back of the net! Now there’s a strike rate that even Cristiano Ronaldo would be proud of!

So, while Striata’s office football team may never trouble Brazil or Spain on the pitch, it may just be that we have the Ultimate Team for the inaugural eBilling World Cup.

What is your paper turn off ‘strike rate’?

Keith Russell
Sales Director, Asia Pacific
www.striata.com

Is your eBilling strategy REALLY focused on the "customer experience"?

I recently managed to upset a large, well-respected company by declining to respond to their eBilling RFP, following a specific request from their Executive Vice President for Striata to participate. Our decision to decline certainly took them by surprise. However, based on our 11 years of experience as an eBilling specialist, we feel this company is fundamentally not going down the right strategic path. While Striata has had a great deal of success convincing companies to broaden their thinking on eBilling, many RFP's are just too far off the "strategy" that we would advocate for their customer base.

Most procurement teams tasked with creating an eBilling RFP are in a very tough spot because the market information on successful EBPP solutions is limited and adoption results are mediocre at best. As such, the majority of RFP's request a thorough analysis of how to build an eBilling website. I'm not saying the portal model is completely the wrong approach. However, in our experience, if this is the ONLY eBilling option you're offering your customers - even with extensive marketing - you're unlikely to achieve critical mass. Without critical mass, all the rich functionality that your proposed solution will offer is wasted.

What most companies don't understand is that eBilling is not about systems and technology as much as it is about providing a customer-friendly replacement for paper communications. Striata has a growing base of more than 250 clients achieving exponentially higher adoption success than the industry average. Why? It is our ability to generate significant ground swell within the client's customer base by giving them an intuitive customer experience, rather than repeating the same mistakes of every other eBilling portal project. Many of our clients globally tried the portal model first (and failed) before enlisting Striata's help. Those who selected Striata achieved a rapid ROI, together with substantial ongoing savings, dramatically reduced payment cycles (DSO) and enhanced customer experience.

eBilling success is measured by adoption and resultant savings, not by features and functionality offered. The majority of your customers are always going to take the path of least resistance. They DON'T want a complicated enrolment, log-in and search process in order to "access" their bill. That just doesn't constitute a convenient replacement for the paper copy. In order to achieve maximum customer adoption, you have to make their lives simpler in terms of viewing and paying the bill.

Another key success factor is working with an eBilling specialist with a proven track record (like Striata) to develop a clear customer-centric adoption strategy that is specifically tailored to your audience.

As an organization, it's essential that you start thinking like a "customer" and adopt a customer friendly strategy and experience that drives the right paperless behaviour.

Barrie Arnold
Vice President of Sales
www.striata.com

Who ‘drives’ the ROI on your eBilling solution?

Over the past several months I’ve seen an incredibly positive shift in thinking, with far more companies not only looking at new technologies to help reduce operating costs, but also at how their IT departments can build these solutions in-house. This makes sense, with every job being scrutinized and IT wanting to demonstrate their value (and secure their jobs for the foreseeable future).

eBilling is again on the agenda as a potential cost saving, however it is NOT a solution you should be looking to BUILD without very careful consideration.

We see it time and again. There are two key components owned by two separate departments that every company with a “build mentality” underestimates. Implementing the right technology first time around (IT’s job) and having a customer adoption strategy to give you the quickest ROI and maximum savings thereafter (marketing / customer care’s job).

Let’s consider the following analogy for your eBilling solution. Imagine you could change to a more efficient fuel for your car that will reduce your cost at the pump by 60 - 90% and cut the cost of services and maintenance. Sounds amazing, right? What’s the catch? Well, there are two actually.

Challenge # 1:
This new fuel requires a new engine. How do you get this new engine into your car?
a. Do you ask your very good, but very busy local mechanic to build this new engine – either from scratch or from off-the-shelf components?
b. Or do you get the manufacturer to install the perfect engine for your car?

Challenge # 2:
To date, only a small number of filling stations have adopted this new type of fuel.
You will have to convince each filling station owner, one-by-one that this new fuel is better for the environment and that because it’s quicker to fill the tank for your new engine, it’ll make their lives much easier. Oh, and it’ll save them about the cost of a postage stamp each month to fill up your car.

Now let’s go back to your eBilling application.

Migrating your paper communications to electronic will save you 60 - 90% on print and mail costs, along with many other soft cost benefits, but how do you get customers to give up paper?

Selecting an eBilling solution that works best for your business and your customers is KEY.

Making sure it’s implemented quickly and professionally is just as important. With a solution that is fundamentally changing the way you communicate with your customers, are you happy to let your local mechanic (your IT team) build your eBilling solution by trial and error? In most cases, for the safety of your passengers and the longevity of your car, you’re going to put your trust in the experts. The same concept should apply for your eBilling solution.

Now on to challenge number 2 – Strategy:

Understanding how to get filling stations (your customers) to adopt this new concept is essential. How do you convince them to go green? Do you offer incentives? What’s the most cost effective way to drive enrollments? What is your goal for the next 3 years – 10%, 20%, 60% of gas stations (paperless customers)? These are all questions that require considerable experience, planning and strategy. And it’s likely that your strategy will need to adapt several times over the next 3 years. In today’s market, companies have neither the budget nor the time to experiment with customer adoption tactics.

IT projects tend to focus on the development and not the roll-out. More often than not, developing and implementing a customer adoption strategy isn’t part of the project. In addition, your customer service and marketing teams won’t know how to design their customer communication strategies until they’ve seen the technology in action and are comfortable that it works as promised.

So, before you decide that your business requirements are unique, that you have a complex or legacy system, or that your corporate culture is to build everything, don’t underestimate the intimate relationship between technology, strategy and experience when making a decision on whether to build or outsource your eBilling solution to the experts.

As Mark Lutchen, Head of the IT Effectiveness practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers puts it, the rule of thumb is to buy applications to the maximum extent possible to cut costs - freeing up resources for whatever really needs to be built in-house.